The reconstructed concrete ramp to the Seti I mortuary temple at Abydos lay ahead. Its slight slope beckoned Alex forward and up. The site was eerily absent of tourists. Buxton must have a contact high in the Egyptian chain of command for the tourist police to have cleared out the area so quickly. A steady stream of air-conditioned coaches whizzed by them as they made their way to the temple site. Alex imagined them full of red-faced angry tourists, the tour guides sweating against the air conditioning as they tried to unruffle the feathers of their cargo.
Alex and her unusual battle team, an ancient professor and smart-ass dwarf God, stood before the temple entrance. What could go wrong?
She’d only seen this grand monument to Seti I in pictures, but it always managed to capture her imagination. It set itself apart from other temples in its squareness. As she approached the main entrance, it resembled a monumental limestone harmonica. Instead of great round pillars, this temple was fronted with large square ones.
“It casts a captivating spell, doesn’t it?” Buxton asked. “Abydos has always been a place of wonderment for me. Excepting the circumstance, I am so glad to be here with you, Alex.” He had an odd smile on his face. “Your father was fond of it too.”
They walked through a vast open courtyard toward the blocklike pillars of the temple’s portico. On close inspection Alex could see they were adorned with hieroglyphs. She knew the texts welcomed the Theban triad of Gods—Isis, Osiris, and their son, Horus. She also knew the entire family was somewhere within this complex. Horus was dead, but what about his parents? Had Raymond killed them yet or were they still alive?
As they entered the massive structure, Alex was surprised at the openness of the initial chamber. Moonlight poured in through open shafts in the ceiling, illuminating the space before them. At first glance it appeared to be as large as a football field. This was where priests would cleanse themselves at ablution wells before continuing into the holy sanctuaries beyond. Alex wondered how the great temple’s builder, Pharaoh Seti I, would feel if he knew that modern travelers who were unwashed, cranky from the heat, and probably hungover wandered aimlessly within its sacred walls.
Alex exited the large chamber and found herself standing in an impressive forest of pillars—not a wild grove teeming with life, but a rootless landscape that created a contemplative stillness in its regularity. Alex knew hypostyle halls were an attempt to architecturally mimic the clutches of reeds that once banked the Nile’s shores. Although the pillars failed miserably to create the effect, standing among them was astonishing. The hypostyle hall simultaneously impressed upon Alex the genius as well as the insignificance of humanity.
A dove cooed, breaking the haunting spell that had been cast on Alex. The sound of its wings flapping made her glance up. A small white feather danced down through a shaft of light from above. It landed softly on the ground. She bent over, picked it up, and dropped it in her scribe’s bag.
“Alex, we must move on.” Gormund took ahold of her hand.
Buxton leaned in and touched Alex’s shoulder. “I promise. If we survive this, we will have a celebration, a fantasia like no one has seen at this very spot.” His face lit with a smile. “And you, my dear, will have the time to scour as you will.”
They continued on, blithely passing by the chapels that were built for the Gods. Alex had to stifle her urges to break away from the group and wander with abandon. Temptation called her around every corner.
They ducked into a hallway inscribed with deeply carved reliefs. The close walls amplified Buxton’s voice. “I think Raymond has located a portal to the underworld within the Osireion. It is my best guess.” Buxton stopped for a moment and turned to gaze at the wall to his right. “When we have our celebration, you will want to come to this wall. I know you will find it quite fascinating.”
Alex brushed by cartouche after cartouche carved into the temple wall. It had to be the Abydos King List. “Damn,” was all she could say as she trailed behind her companions, who led her away from the list and through a narrow, unadorned hallway. In comparison to the rest of the temple complex, its lack of decoration made it seem like an ancient servants’ entrance. When the corridor abruptly ended, Alex found herself standing at the crest of a hill in the cool night air.
The moon was low and large. Its light was like a spotlight focused on a megalithic structure in the pit below. Huge blocks of granite were stacked on one another in a manner atypical for an ancient Egyptian site. At its base was a dark pool of water. Around the centermost standing stones were what appeared to be doorways to chapels or niches. Arched corridors in the distance led away from the submerged structure. Could this be the primordial soup and stones of eternity that Akh-Hehet foretold?
Alex was familiar with images of this temple and recognized they were standing above the Osireion. She knew if it were daylight, the water would look like murky pea soup. In the moonlight, the groundwater was as dark as India ink. The massive vertical granite blocks appeared to rise out of the muck with enough space between them to imply that they were intended as giant columns. Twin horizontal slabs crowned the columns, connecting one to the other.
Some believed this site was the burial place of the God Osiris and somewhere nearby was his symbolic tomb. As they shuffled down the dirt hill, Alex noticed a wooden structure leading into the pit where the massive blocks rested. “What is that?”
“It allows tourists to hover over the murky water and enjoy the ambiance of this strange site. But it is of no use to us,” said Buxton, his voice wavering.
“How so?”
“We are going to wade into it,” said Buxton.
“Eww,” added Gormund. “It is a lucky thing it’s nighttime. I think my imagination would run rampant in daylight, wondering what unseen thingies lived in the depths of that murky mess.”
“Thank you once again, Gormund, for adding some creepy zest to the moment before we plunge forward,” said Alex. “I am just glad that . . . unlike for you, Gormund, that murky mess will only be mid-thigh on us. You, on the other hand, might have to swim to keep your head above water. Or one of us could give you a piggyback ride.”
Gormund’s face clouded and he defiantly waded in.
“Be sure to make smooth strokes. That will probably help minimize muck movement.” Alex enjoyed giving Gormund a little of his own medicine.
They made their way through the dark liquid, pushing through its stagnant brew. With every ripple, no matter how small, a vile and pungent stink of rotting debris assaulted her nose. She wanted to retch. The contents of her stomach threatened to return to the outside world. Alex swallowed hard, not wanting to add to the already rancid brew, then pinched her nose. Both Buxton and Gormund wore expressions of great discomfort, especially Gormund, whose nose skimmed the surface as he attempted a sad, slow dog paddle.
“Is there something in particular we are looking for?” asked Alex as she followed Buxton toward the underground corridor.
“I think we will find what we are looking for in there.” Buxton pointed to the massive square lintel ahead of them.
They arrived at the dark passageway. Buxton stepped up into it and pulled Gormund with him. “The water will be shallower in the mouth of this man-made cave.”
“Thank God I can stand now,” Gormund breathed out in relief. “I was starting to lose steam. However, the idea of drowning in that glop was a great motivator.”
“I think it is time to don the headlamps.” Buxton pulled his out and strapped it around his head. “Switch it on and let’s get going.”
Eventually, the corridor came to an abrupt end.
“Oh dear,” said Buxton. “It looks like I was mistaken.”
“Mistaken? You mean I swam across that crap for nothing?”
“This looks like a blank wall. I can’t see a hint of a door or even a latent magic spell.”
“Or a gigantic arrow pointing down with the words Underworld This Way in glowing neon?” Gormund’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this wild-goose chase. If I weren’t so tired from swimming through that primordial soup I would—”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Alex said. A little speck of light at the end of the wall caught her eye. “Come check this out.” Alex ran her finger over a hole so smooth and perfect it had to be intentionally created. It had a definite shape and size, like a dollhouse-sized keyhole. Around it were tiny hieroglyphs. Alex rubbed them with her fingers.
“Can you read it, Buxton?”
“It says something about the strength and power of Osiris will lead you safely through the Duat.”
No, it couldn’t be that simple. However, Alex hoped with all her might that it could be.